The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-02-18
THE PENSION VETO.
The Dependant Pension Bill Re-
ceives a Black Eye.
Synopsis of President CIeve1and's Exhaust
i've Message to Congress Explaining
His Reasons for Withholding His
Signature From the Measure.


placed upon the pension rolls 365, 763 pen
/ sioners of all classes, for whom S75, ,000,
/ OO0 have been appropriated for the current
| year, and for whom $808, ,624 S11 have been
| expended from 1861 to 1886. It is now pro-
! posed to award service pensions to SOL
| diers of all wars at the rate of S12 per
| month, It exacts only service of three
1 months, without requiring engagement in
| battle or subject to any actual dangers o f
war. The pension is allowed to men who
| have suffered no injury loss or damage OF
| any kind due to military service, and in
| cludes those who never reached the front
at all The section of the bill allowing
this pension is in language so uncertain as
! to be subject to unjust and mischievous
| application. The persons seeking pension
must be suffering moral or physical dis
| ability, such as incapacitates from the
| performance of labor in such degree a s
to render them unable to earn a support,
and must be dependent on their daily
labor for support.
Passing on to a consideration of their
| conditions, the President adds:
ut will be observed that there is no lin
! itation or definition of the incapaCitating
| injury or ailment itself. 1t need only be
such degree of disability from any cause
as renders the claimant unable to earn a
support by labor. 1t seems to me that the
support here mentioned as one which
| can not be earned is a complete and entire
support, with no diminution on account of
| the least impairment of physical or men,
| tai condition. If it had intended to en-
brace only those who, by disease or labor,
were totally unable to labor, it would
have been very easy to express that idea,
instead of recognizing, as is done. degree
| of such inability
And then he asks: ''What is supportl
Who is to determine whether man earns
| it, or has it, or has it not! Is the Govern
| ment to enter the homes of claimants for
| pensions, and after an examination of
| their surroundings and circumstances,
| settle those quest tions! Shall the Govern
| ment say to one man that his manner Of
| subsistence by his earnings is a support,
| and to another that the things that
| his earnings furnish are not a supports
| Any attempt, however honest, to admin
| ister this law in such manner, would
necessarily produce more unfairness and
| discrimination, and give more scope for
| partisan partiality and would result in
| more perverson of the Governments be-
nevolent intentions than the execution of
any statute ought to permit. If the effort
to carry out the proposed law, the degr ee
of disability as related to earnings be
considered for the purpose OF showing if
in any way it curtails the support which
the applicant, if entirely sound, would
earn, and to which he is entitled, we enter
the broad field long occupied by the Pen
sion Bureau, and werecOgnize as the only
difference between the proposed legisla-
tiOn and previous laws passed for the be-
nedt of the surviving soldiers of the civil
war, the incurrence, in one case, of dis
abilities in military service, and in the
other disabilities existing but in no way
connected with, or resulting from such
| service
1T must be borne in mind that in no
case is there any grading of this proposed
pension. Under the operation of the rule
first suggested, if there is a lack in any
degree, great or small, Of the ability to
earn such support as the Government de-
termines the claimant should have, and
by the application of the rule secondly
suggested if there is a reduction in any
degree of the support which he mightearn
if sound, he is entitled to a pension Of
twelve dollars.
'In the latter case and under the
provisO of the proposed bill, permitting
persons now receiving pensions to be ad-
mitted to the benefits of the act, / do not
see how those now on the pension roll for
disabilities incurred in the service and
which diminish their earning capacity,
can be denied the pension provided in this
bill"
Another condition required of claimants
under this act is that they shall be ''de-
pendent upon their daily labor for sup
port."- Under the provisions of this Sec
ton, any soldier, the President thinks,
whose faculties of mind or body have be-
come impaired by accident, disease or age,
irrespective Of his service in the army, and
who by his labor only is left incapable of
gaining the. fair support he might with
unimpaired powers have provided for him
self, and who IS not so well endowed with
this worlds goods as to live without work,
may claim to participate in this bounty;
that it is not required that he should be
without property, but only that labor
should be necessary to his support in some
degree; nor is it trequired that he should be
now receiving support from others.
Recent observation and experience con
strain the President to refer to another re-
suit sure to follow the passage of this bill
There can be no doubt, he says, that the
race after pensions offered by the bill
would not only stimulate weakness and
pretended incapacity for labor, but put
7 further premium on dishonesty and men.
dacity. More than this, while cost should
not be set against a patriotic duty or the
recognition of right; still, when meas
ure proposed is based upon generosity or
motives of charity, it is not amiss to medi-
tate somewhat upon the expense it in
wolves. Experience, the President says,
has demonstrated that all estimates con-
corning the probable future cost of a pen.
sion list are uncertain and unreliable, and
always fall below the actual realization,
and in support of his assertions, says:
1.-THE chairman of the House committee
/ on pensions calculates that the number Of
pensioners under this bill would be 33, ,I05,
and the increased cost "a, 767, 12O; this is
upon the theory that only those who are
entirely unable to work would be its ben.
edciaries. Such was the principle of the
revolutionary pension law of 1918, much
more clearly stated, it seems to me. than
in this bill. When the law of 1918 was up
on its passage in Congress, the number Of
pensioners to be benefited thereby was
thought to be 374; but the number of ap-
plicants under the act was 81, ,297, and the
number of pensions actually allowed DO
4s5, costing, it is reported, for the first
year, 81, ,S47, 900, instead Of $40, 900, the es-
timated expense for that period.
"a law was passed in 1853 for the benefit
Of the surviving widows of revolutionary
soldiers who were married after January
1, 1900. It was estimated that they num-
bered three hundred at the time of the
passage of the act; but the number of
/ pensions allowed was 3,742 and the
/ amount paid for such pensions, during the
| first year of the operation Of the act was
/ S161,000 instead of $4,000 as had been esti-
mated"
i have rnade no search for other illus
/ trations.n the President adds, "and the
above being at hand are given as tending
/ 70 show that estimates can not be relied
| upon in such cases.
| Continuing with his objections to the
( biz. the President says; If none should
I be pensioned under this bill except those
utterly unable to work, am satisfied that
[ the cost stated in the estimate referred to
/ would be many times multiplied, and with
a constant increase from year to year, and
1 if those partially unable 70 earn their
I support should be admitted to the priv
! neges Of this bill, the probable increase
/ Of expense would be appalling.